The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has lodged a freedom of information (FOI) request for all correspondence between jobs minister Kelly O'Dwyer and the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO), in a bid to find out whether the move to allow employers to stop workers attending political rallies was politically motivated.
The FOI request seeks any communications between the minister and FWO that mention "strategies or proposals to discourage members of the public from attending [union] rallies" or "the necessity or desirability of a reminder to workers that they may be in breach of the Fair Work Act 2009 for taking unprotected industrial action or otherwise, by attending the rallies".
A spokesperson for O’Dwyer told BuzzFeed News: "The minister has not directed the Fair Work Ombudsman on this matter, nor would she. The Fair Work Ombudsman is an independent statutory office.”
The ACTU lodged the request after Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) Sandra Parker warned workers last week they could be fined if they organised or engaged in unprotected industrial action.
Unions are planning a month of "Change The Rules" rallies, starting in Perth on October 18. The ACTU says the rallies are not industrial action, but political protests encouraging workers to "stand up, fight back and restore power to the people".
The union says it is a protest to highlight stagnant wage growth, rising income inequality, housing and rental affordability, the casualisation of work, underemployment and closing the gender pay gap.
The Victorian Trades Hall Council estimates up to 150,000 workers will attend the rally in Melbourne on October 23, which could potentially shut down work sites around the city for hours.
O'Dwyer has previously described the rallies as "road-clogging, productivity sapping, economy-damaging". She warned that the Change The Rules events will be an "insight" into what would happen across Australia "on a rolling basis" under a Shorten government.
Parker told employers they can deduct a minimum of four hours of pay from staff if they attend a union rally without permission, even if they don't spend the full four hours away from work.
“Where an employee has engaged in unprotected industrial action, the employer is required under the Fair Work Act to deduct a minimum of four hours' wages from the employee, even if the industrial action was less than four hours," a spokesperson for Parker said earlier this month.
Parker has threatened to monitor and investigate workers who attend rallies. She encouraged employers to keep a list of staff who engage in industrial action.
“As a part of the FWO’s functions under the Fair Work Act, the FWO will monitor and investigate potential noncompliance with the Commonwealth workplace laws, including allegations of people engaging in or organising unprotected industrial action,’’ the FWO spokesperson said.
“Please be aware that if an employee fails to attend the workplace or stops work without authorisation from their employer, this conduct may be unprotected industrial action in contravention of the Fair Work Act.
“Any person ’knowingly involved’ in a contravention of the Fair Work Act is also taken to have contravened that provision."
The maximum penalty for engaging in unprotected industrial action was increased last year by the Turnbull government to $12,600 for an individual and $63,000 for a corporation.
“We are very concerned that the new minister Kelly O’Dwyer may have been involved in encouraging or directing that the FWO act in a way that furthers the minister’s political interest," ACTU president Sally McManus told BuzzFeed News.
“Unfortunately, this government has a shameful record of politicising government bodies for its own political self-interest, to the detriment of the Australian people."
McManus said the FWO is giving staff the misleading impression that by attending rallies they could be contravening the Fair Work Act.
Last year McManus told the ABC she didn't have a problem with workers breaking unjust laws.
"We live in a democracy," she said. "We have a right to participate in lawful, peaceful, political protests."
On Monday McManus wrote to Parker to outline her concern that the FWO continues to misrepresent the rights of workers to attend union rallies in letters to employer groups such as the Ai Group.